New motto: But...but...I am a linguist!


Who am I?

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An expat Ohioan living (for lack of better word) and working (teaching English grammar and composition and a bit of Linguistics) in southern Tohoku/northern Kanto, Japan.

I have never been one to suffer fools gladly. This trait seems to only grow stronger as I pass the midpoint of my fifth decade on this planet...

Current Interests

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Too many to list, really. But here are a few things:

Languages

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Music

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Shamisen

New Interest! Quasi-Christian cults!

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Mormonism

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Japanese Wikipedia User Page

Wikimedia Commons User Page

Useful Wikpedia Code

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(More to be added later)

Some links...

Work to be done...

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Burning question: Why is National Route 6 (国道六号) called Roku-koku (六国) instead of Koku-Roku (国六)?!

No article on Kakari-musubi?

Translate

Rewrite?


Work Area/Personal Sandbox

Some useful links, etc.

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  • Manual of Style for Japan-related articles
    • Rules of thumb:
      • For a historical figure (a person born before the first year of Meiji (1868)), always use the traditional Japanese order of family name + given name. Names from Japanese mythology and folklore fall into this category.
      • For a modern figure (a person born from the first year of Meiji (1868) onward), always use the Western order of given name + family name for Western Alphabet, and Japanese Style family name+<space>+given name for Japanese Characters.
    • There is a template (Template:Nihongo) to help standardize the entries for Japanese terms. Usage example:
      {{Nihongo|New Meikai Japanese Dictionary|新明解国語辞典|Shin Meikai Kokugo Jiten}}
      gives: New Meikai Japanese Dictionary (新明解国語辞典, Shin Meikai Kokugo Jiten)


My POV on Names...

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...can be summed up simply by the proverb 「郷にいれば郷に従え」"When in Rome...." It all depends on audience, who you're writing for. If your audience is composed of native English speakers who may not be familiar with the name-order rules of other languages, follow English convention. Using the normal Japanese order without exception, adopting weird typographical conventions that still have to be explained...I think these just cause more confusion.

I'm sorry if some people are offended by having the order of the parts of their name reversed, but it's not a position I can really understand. I drop my middle name and reverse my surname and given name in Japanese; I don't see what the big deal is. If your personal and cultural identity is that important—more important than communicating with others?—then why romanize at all? Why not just leave your name in your native orthography and require everyone else to learn it? Expecting them to be familiar with your language's conventions is just a less radical version of the same line of thinking, no? Anyway, you're free to write your name any ole way you please. Just don't ask me to change the rules of my language to conform to your whims.

The above are just my personal preferences. Naturally, I follow Wikipedia standards in all edits here.